It is very important that our network of roads functions as well as possible. For companies and authorities whose ability to work relies directly on the status of the roads it is crucial that problems on certain roads are quickly fixed or at least that information regarding the road status is accessible to be able to plan new routes.
For drivers of police cars, ambulances and fire trucks, for whom it is important to get to a location as quick as possible, information about the conditions of the roads leading to that location can be a matter of life and death. With the information that a road is, for example, very icy or snowy the driver can decide whether another road might be faster or not.
For trucking companies and road maintenance companies it is an economical issue to know the status of road networks. Trucking companies can increase their efficiency by redirecting trucks to roads in good driving conditions. Maintenance companies can increase their efficiency by prioritising the roads that are in greatest need of maintenance.
Information regarding the condition and status of roads can obviously also be of high concern and importance also for the general public, i.e. for drivers of regular cars and other vehicles.
Permanent weather stations give information about the weather in their vicinity but they are unreliable; they are only about 60-70% correct. They are also most reliable in their direct vicinity, so for roads just a short distance away the weather information might be incorrect. For companies and authorities there is a need for improved weather information that is road specific and more accurate than the information received from weather stations.
The patent document EP 2172377 A1 discloses a method for processing data that has been collected from mobile units and permanent weather stations in an area of roads. The area is divided into sub-areas where each sub-area has at least one distinctive geographical feature or characteristic which affects the climate within the sub-area. The data from the mobile unit may include information relating to temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, if the windscreen wipers are on, if the ABS system is activated and so on. The information from the mobile units is combined with the information from the weather stations and with the information regarding a specific geographical feature in the sub-area. The geographical feature may for example be a river running alongside the road which increases the risk of ice in the road at certain weather conditions. EP 2172377 A1 provides a solution where specific road status is obtained in sub-areas with a distinctive geographical feature.
WO 2005/007973 A1 discloses an apparatus and a method for detecting and collecting values for a road friction dependent parameter at wheeled vehicles and transmitting the values to a central receiver for processing and re-transmitting. The values for road friction are used to determine the need for maintenance on specific roads. The values also help the driver to manually control the distribution of surface treatment substance dependent on the road status information the values indicate.
In a system which collects and processes data related to road status of a network of roads, where data is collected from a plurality of vehicles and from a stationary data collecting unit and where information related to said road status is provided to at least one user, there is a need to provide more local road status information.
A simplified system and method which provides local road status information without dividing all roads into small sub-areas is needed, i.e. a simplified way to get a more accurate and more local road status.